GOOGLE AND LEVIS BACK GAY MARRIAGE

Two global brands, Google and Levis, have backed the campaign to keep same-sex marriage legal in California.

On Friday, Google co-founder Sergey Brin wrote on the company’s official blog publicly supporting the ‘no’ vote against Proposition 8.

Proposition 8 is a proposed constitutional reversal of same-sex marriage in California (which was legalised by the state’s Supreme Court in May this year) that will be put to the state’s voters in a referendum on November 4.

“…it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8,” wrote Brin.

“While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 – we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.”

Levi Strauss, the international jeans manufacturer, announced on Thursday that it would donate $25,000 toward the campaign to defeat Proposition 8. The company also said that the company’s chairman, Robert Haas, had pledged $100,000, towards the cause.

The campaign opposing Proposition 8 has also been backed by high-profile celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Steven Spielberg.